A courageous Lincolnshire girl has paid tribute to her late brother by submitting a petition to Downing Street, pleading for an increase in allergy safety measures for schools. Etta Blythe, a six-year-old resident of Stamford, gave the petition in response to an inquest which determined her brother, Benedict Blythe, tragically died due to an allergic reaction whilst at Barnack Primary School in December 2021. The findings of the inquest exposed shortfalls in the school’s management of his cow’s milk allergy, underscoring the urgent need for strengthening school allergy policies.
Helen Blythe, the mother of the late Benedict, supports ‘Benedict’s Law’, a proposed regulation requiring schools to develop comprehensive allergy management policies, maintain spare adrenaline pens, and provide allergy management training for their staff. The Benedict Blythe Foundation, which supports this initiative, has revealed worrisome statistics: approximately one in three schools does not have an allergy policy, and more than half do not provide any allergy management training. With over 13,500 signatures, the petition stresses the pressing need for preventive procedures which could potentially save the lives of children with allergies.
The Department for Education is currently assessing strategies to assist children with allergies and aims to institute these measures without introducing new legislation. Meanwhile, the advocacy of the Blythe family continues to make an impact, with Etta also disseminating letters from children across the UK who encounter similar struggles. Helen Blythe highlights the essential nature of these foundational yet potentially life-saving measures, with the belief that their implementation could avert future tragedies akin to the one that took her son’s life.
This report is based on the original coverage provided by www.bbc.com, as adapted by The Lincoln Post.
